How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds By Nicholas Carr

Jean M. Twenge despises smartphones! That is the initial reaction to the title of her article “Have Smartphones Destroyed A generation?” . This will be an analysis of the effectiveness of the article written by Jean M. Twenge about the effects of smartphone usage on younger generations. With modern reliance growing more heavily on smartphones and younger generations being born with these devices around them, Twenge has gathered information pertaining to this new generational adaption that began to show signs around 2012. “Around 2012, I noticed abrupt shifts in teen behaviors and emotional states. The gentle slopes of the line graphs became steep mountains and sheer cliffs, and many of the distinctive characteristics of the Millennial

In her article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, Jean Twenge discusses how the new generation of teenagers are becoming highly dependent on their smartphones and need them alongside them at any given point in time. Twenge calls this new generation born between the late 1990s and early teens “iGen” after a recent survey found that majority of teenagers owned an iPhone. She argues that with every new generation, new habits form, both good and bad. The technological developments that have occurred in the last ten years Twenge argues are not a bad thing, it is how the “iGen” teenagers are becoming reliant on their phones and using them to avoid social interactions. They would choose to stay home alone in their rooms and talk to their friends virtually on social media versus actually leaving the house and doing something face-to-face with their friends. Twenge argues that if teenagers decide to leave the house, phones still have a strong presence, often not leaving the hands of its owner for longer than a couple minutes with social media like Snapchat and Instagram tagging along. Twenge worries that the strong dependency on smartphones and increasing rates of obsession with social media are a couple of the largest contributors to the rise of depression and suicide among the teenagers of “iGen”.

Today, smartphones are everywhere. Just about everybody uses them from the time they get up, to the time they go to bed. With this personal tool, a lot of people have seen positive effects from using the device. However, some believe that people are going to far with a smartphone and that now it’s becoming more than a personal companion. This is what Nicholas Carr believes in “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds.” In the essay Carr argues that smartphones are having a negative effect on people’s minds. He strengthens his argument by use of fact, word choice, and emotional appeal.

In “How Smartphones are Hijacking our Minds”, Nicholas Carr argues that smartphones are hijacking our minds. To strengthen his claim, Nicholas Carr uses strong diction, statistics, and irony, to emphasize phones hijacking minds.

Studies have found that as the phone use increases, your attention goes elsewhere, “revealing that the more heavily student relied on their phones in their everyday lives, the greater the cognitive penalty they suffered” (Carr 3). The more focus a cell phone receives the more a person will suffer mentally. At UCSD around 520 students were given two standardized tests of intellectual acuity. “The only variable in the experiment was the location of the subjects’ smartphones. Some of the students.. place their phones in front of them on their desks; others were told to stow their phones in their pockets.. others were required to leave their phones in a different room” (Carr 3). The results from this study were conspicuous. It’s self-evident that anyone with phone insight had worst scores than those who didn't have their phones at all or had them in their pockets. Technology has take over us and it is draining our

Is your smartphone like your closest companion and friend ; I can say mine’s is! Smartphones are new and addictive in the world. According to the article “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicholas Carr cellular devices have become addictive and seized our brain functionality. In “How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicholas Carr, the author uses rhetorical devices such as strong diction, supporting data, and cites studies to strengthen his opinion of the captivity that smartphones possess over our brains.

The article “How Smart-phones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicolas Carr is about the destructive use of smart phones. So many people depend on their smart phones that it damages with the outcome of their work. Smart phones also make it harder to focus and remember since everything is now saved on your phone. The destruction with the phones don’t only occur with everyday activities, but it also affects your relationships and can cause distractions. Overall, the use of smart phones has shown negative effects on people’s minds.

In “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” written by, the Psychology Doctor, Jean M. Twenge, she presents the results produced after twenty-five years of research (Twenge para3). Her research was carried out to understand the new generation and explain how it differs to the previous generations (Twenge para9). Although her style is indeed formal, she utilized a heavy amount of credentials, logos, emotional appeal and a factual tone, to enforces her appeal on the parents of the kids of this new generation. Furthermore, she underlays her stand on the topic throughout her analysis, rather than having a direct approach and states actual percentages to compare previous generations to the new one, which leads to a sense of validity. It is not until the very end, that she finally states her stand in a more direct sense, since she has now gained the trust of her audience.

2. The hypothesis of the article “effects of classroom cell phone: use on expected and actual learning”, is if a person will get distracted if they are using their phone while doing an activity.

According to Lenhart, in 2012 three quarters of teens, ages 12-17, owned cell phones. Of those teens, twenty three percent of them indicated they possessed a smartphone. With the technology advancing in cell phones, it has become yet another classroom distraction and a serious concern for cheating. With cell phones on hand, it has created an easy way to become distracted during class. Assistant Professor Campbell from the University of Kansas brought to attention, “one study found that a third of university students in the US play video games on their mobile phones and laptops during class (Gilroy, 2004 as cited in Katz, 2005).” The majority of researchers have found that mobile phones have lead to problematic use in the school environment

It is said that smartphones are a substantial distraction and cause us to make poor judgements (Journal of Experimental Psychology, Human Perception & Performance).

Teenagers who use their cellphones very often will have their academic progress negatively affected due to being distracted. It is not a rare occurrence for teenagers to have their phones with them while they are in class, but that is mainly because many of them do not realize the impact it is having on their grades. Researchers, Christian M. End, Shaye Worthman, Mary Bridget Matthews, and Katharina Wetterau at Xavier University did a study about the impact of

Many people believe that bringing cell phones to school may cause distractions. However, a recent study leads more and more people to believe that mobile phones could in fact be a “powerful learning tool” (Docksai), serving as a mobile computer ("Cell Phones in the Classroom” ). Elizabeth Hartnell- Young, a research fellow from the University of Nottingham tracked 331 students from 14 to 16 years old, for learning through cell phones. They used cell phones to make short videos, set homework reminders, record poems, and transfer files from home to school (Docksai). Students described their learning experience as “motivated” (Docksai). Many experts pointed out that students have a “deep comfort level” with mobile phones (Docksai). In other words, students could learn more if they enjoyed what they were doing. An increasing number of teachers have changed their point of view towards cell phones, many now believe that cell phones would exert positive effects on education. For example, some teachers have already started to collect homework online and answer questions through text- messaging. A school in Saskatchewan encouraged students to read and share thoughts about books through their cell phones (Docksai). Furthermore, according to a recent survey, the majority of students could refrain from using cell phones and not be distracted by them in class. In fact, over 71% of students didn’t

In Tamara Brenner’s article, “The Use of Mobile Devices in the College Classroom”, she stresses that the use of cell phones is distracting in a college classroom setting. This article was published by the Bok Center by Harvard University. Brenner has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, and taught undergraduate life science classes at Harvard. Today’s day and age is almost completely dependent on technology. Teenagers and students today have a completely new problem to deal with as far as how to balance cell phone time and lecture time in classrooms. Anybody in a college classroom setting should pay attention to what is in this article, especially students and teachers. Brenner uses strong studies and research papers to inform the reader about the issue as well as looks at all sides of the argument on how distracting mobile devices are in the college classroom.

With technology advancing quite rapidly through the past few years, things such as cellphones and laptops are becoming quite common within the university classrooms. With this advancement of technology also comes many drawbacks to its usage within a classroom. Many professors are okay with the use of cellphones in the classroom, but often students will abuse this privilege and use their phones excessively. University students, throughout their university experience will begin to have an academic decline due to the phone use they incur on themselves. People using technology in class not only distracts themselves, but can distract other students who are trying to focus and work, as well as being disrespectful to the professor teaching the class. Due to these circumstances, professors should begin prohibiting the use of technology, more specifically cellphones, in their classrooms to improve student academics as well as attention. This will not only assist the students in the long run academically and for their career by teaching them proper social interaction, but make the professor feel more positive about teaching the content, as their students will not be distracted by phones.